Macro documentation does not mention {body} syntax for macro definitions

[mlschroe]

I noticed that there is no documentation for this construct

$ rpm --define 'foo { bar }' --eval '>%{foo}<'
> bar <

Should we document it? Or is that feature deprecated? Does anybody use it at all?

[dmnks]

Relevant piece of code:

rpm/rpmio/macro.c

Line 722 in c4665da

} else if (c == '{') { /* XXX permit silent {...} grouping */

[pmatilai]

I certainly remember seeing that code, but never quite got what it actually refers to. I doubt anybody knows of it, really.

It'd be a lot more useful if it permitted multiline macros. People seem to be widely abusing %{expand:...} (probably without fully realizing the consequences) to get the more function-like block syntax for multiline macros instead of \-line continuations.

[mlschroe]

The code in doDefine() supports multiline macros, it's that nasty rdcl() function that is to blame here.

[mlschroe]

I think the original intend was to make the macro definitions look like bash function definitions.